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Montana’s proposal to increase oversight is part of a national trend by states to ensure nonprofit hospitals act as charitable organizations as they claim tax-exempt status. But the state has yet to set standards for how much the hospitals must do.
In this episode of “An Arm and a Leg,” host Dan Weissmann speaks with Georgann Boatright, a patient in Mississippi who was willing to drive to another state to avoid paying a steep fee to her local hospital.
Fewer than half of rural U.S. hospitals offer labor and delivery services. In some areas, births have dropped by three-quarters since the baby boom’s peak.
Increasingly, Americans pay for the privilege of seeing a doctor. Research shows concierge medicine can further hamper access to care for those who can’t afford the upgrade.
Dozens of small cities and towns across the United States struggle not just with health care access and the loss of jobs, but also with the burden of what to do with big, empty buildings.
Suffering stomach pain, a Dallas man visited his local urgent care clinic — or so he thought, until he got a bill 10 times what he’d expected.
Clinicians working for Ascension hospitals in multiple states described harrowing lapses, including delayed or lost lab results, medication errors, and an absence of routine safety checks to prevent potentially fatal mistakes.
If Indiana officials approve a proposed hospital merger in western Indiana in the coming months, the state will have its first hospital monopoly created by a “Certificate of Public Advantage.” Other such deals have resulted in government reports documenting diminished care in Tennessee and North Carolina.
The nursing home industry — as well as a healthy number of Congress members — are all pushing back on the Biden administration’s new rules on nursing home staffing. Industry officials say that there are not enough workers to meet the requirements and that the costs would be prohibitive. Meanwhile, Democrats on Capitol Hill are trying to force Republicans to explain their exact positions on assuring access to contraceptives and in vitro fertilization. Rachel Cohrs Zhang of Stat, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, and Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews KFF Health News’ Bram Sable-Smith, who reported and wrote the latest KFF Health News-NPR “Bill of the Month” feature about a free cruise that turned out to be anything but.
As Congress remains deadlocked on gun policy, the Biden administration is calling on hospital leaders and doctors to gather more data about gunshot injuries and deaths and step up their violence prevention work.
California is the ninth state to set annual health spending targets for the industry. Already hospitals and doctors are voicing resistance to the fledgling Office of Health Care Affordability, even as they avoid overtly opposing its goals.
Provider groups are disappointed that the Federal Trade Commission’s new rule may not protect those who work for nonprofit hospitals and health care facilities, which employ the largest number of medical professionals.
KFF Health News gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
A disconnect between two federal programs meant to help keep hospitals afloat discourages struggling rural facilities from accepting the aid.
Ballad Health, a 20-hospital system in Tennessee and Virginia, benefits from the largest state-sanctioned hospital monopoly in the United States and is the only option for hospital care for a large swath of Appalachia.
A Florida law was enacted this spring making the Sunshine State the first in the nation to let cesarean sections be performed in settings other than hospitals — leading to warnings about increased risks for pregnant women and their babies.
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